Soaring demand for creative writing courses

By Michael Melia

Published
2:16 pm PDT, Friday, April 7, 2017

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Some credit the rise of social media. Others attribute it to a flourishing culture of self-expression. Whatever the reason, colleges across the United States are seeing a boom in demand for courses on creative writing.

Colleges are adding writing programs to accommodate interest in what has become the rarest of fields in the humanities — a sector that is growing, rather than losing students to science and technology.

The number of schools offering bachelor’s degrees in creative writing has risen from three in 1975 to 733 today, according to the Association of Writers & Writing Programs, an industry group based at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.

So what will these students do after graduating?

“Most of them are aware that this probably is not going to be their career. At least, I hope they’re aware,” said David Galef, director of the creative writing program at Montclair State University in New Jersey. “They’re interested in doing something they feel is creative.”

While some will become professional writers, others will find work in fields such as public relations, advertising or something completely unrelated. Instructors say some students see their focus on writing as a way to understand themselves, make use of a liberal education and enrich their lives.

One Montclair State undergraduate, Gil Moreno, 46, enrolled years after completing another bachelor’s degree, in business management, and dreams of becoming a writer. Even if he can’t do it professionally, he’ll keep it up on the side.

“I’m looking to get away from the business world,” he said. “I’m kind of looking to live in my own separate world.”

The number of creative writing bachelor’s programs has grown steadily, but spiked from 161 in 2008 to 592 in 2013, according to the AWP.

The number of offerings in creative writing has roughly doubled over the last five years at Yale, where the creative writing director, Richard Deming, suspects the interest can be credited, at least partly, to social media.

“This act of expressing one’s voice in a public way — some people feel that they want to add craft, they want to hone those skills,” he said.